


dates

by jessamoo



Category: Reign (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 14:15:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2510684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessamoo/pseuds/jessamoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for the prompt "bash keeps getting set up on bad blind dates and he meets kenna who is waitressing."</p>
            </blockquote>





	dates

Bash closed his eyes wearily but the chattering girl across from him didn’t seem to notice.

He’s on yet another ridiculous date that he had allowed Francis to find for him against his better judgement. Francis had a way of putting all girls into the category of ‘not Mary’, and so everyone seemed like a good person, a fun person, a nice girl to him, because Mary shined so brightly in his eyes that everyone else muddled together.

Bash didn’t have that luxury. These girls were probably great, even if this one did seem to be talking an awful lot about nothing, but they were not meant for him.

Someone out there would adore them, and they deserved to find him instead of wasting their night with him. He would guiltily part with them with an apologetic look at the end of the night – but right now he was staring at the exit like it was the gateway to heaven.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees the waitress cleaning the table beside theirs.

 

He’d seen her here on all four of his dates so far.

She had introduced herself to the people she served, and when she had looked him in the eyes and told him her name, Kenna, for some reason it felt like she genuinely wanted him to know.

She was tall, but gracefully slow. Her lithe body hovered and bent over the tables, she moved around with a practised ease, like she was floating. 

Long brown hair was always messily scrunched on top of her head – in that cute way girls seemed to have mastered perfectly. Small strands would escape and she would tuck them away behind her ear as she took orders, the tiny movements of her fingers shot through him – a god in the details. 

Somehow the light of the small restaurant bathed everyone else sickly yellow – but not her. She seemed to glow with it, friendly incandescent smile infecting everyone with its loveliness.

 

Kenna saw him glancing at her, and she stood up upon hearing the girl’s unending chatter. She gives him a sympathetic look, raising her eyebrows before taking the plates away.  
When one of his previous dates had begun to talk endlessly about her ex-boyfriend, Kenna had narrowed her eyes and given him a jokingly impressed look when his date had got onto the topic of her and her ex's sex life. He had had to suppress a laugh, smiling into his napkin.

 

When the girl opposite him finally leaves, he sits there for a while, enjoying the quiet. He cant lie to himself and say he doesn’t notice Kenna milling around, waiting for the last of her customers to leave.

He’s about to call it a night and go home when he sees her walking over to him, a mug in her hand.

He’s about to place another note on top of the money he had already placed with the bill but she holds her hand up as she reaches him.

“On the house.” She smiles kindly.

She places the steaming beverage in front of him and he smiles gratefully up at her. 

Looking into the cup the welcome smell of fresh coffee hits his nose and he inhales it happily.

“You have no idea how much I needed this.” He shakes his head, taking a careful sip.

Kenna shrugs “no problem.” She smiles. “So another bust?”

Bash doesn’t want to disrespect his date – she hadn’t been all that bad, but he finds himself telling Kenna all about it. Kenna eventually sits in the chair opposite him to listen.

They talk and laugh until they are the only two people left in there. They are utterly oblivious to this as Bash explains about his brother and how he kept finding him these girls and how he didn’t have the heart to say no. 

kenna tells him stories of the strange people she had met whilst working, how difficult it sometimes was and how rewarding. She could go from stories of having to ask people to leave to helping someone propose to his girlfriend. Bash could tell that she enjoyed taking care of people, though she insisted she didn’t as she talked.

And as she sat opposite him and the time melted away, he couldn’t help but think that’s what a perfect date must be like.

 

In the next few weeks he goes on two more dates. A small traitorous part of him does it because he wants to see Kenna again and tell her all about them. 

And every time they end, she brings him coffee.

 

This girl was beautiful. Like movie star beautiful and he had no idea where Francis found her, or how he had managed to get her to agree to a blind date.

Her name was Monica and she had jet black hair and pale eyes. She liked old movies and dusty bookshops and they talked about all the bands they had been to see. It was good, surprisingly good. Bash actually enjoyed himself and didn’t look at his watch once.

Kenna had served them again, but her usual friendly manner and smiles at his dates had somehow faltered. She had tried, but he had seen a small hesitation in her eyes and she had rushed away quickly. He hadn’t really seen her since because he was focused on his date for once.

And that was a good thing. He was supposed to be, wasn’t he?

But after an hour two he realises he hasn’t caught Kenna’s eye or smiled at her even once and he suddenly feels the absence of it like a hollow inside of him that even the light in Monica’s eyes can’t illuminate.

Monica, seeing his sudden distraction, traces a hand gently over his arm. 

He’s about to drag his eyes back to her when he hears a tremendous crash from the other side of the room.

When his attention snaps over to where the sound came from, he sees an emotional looking Kenna quickly clearing food and plate shards from the floor. A furious red blush is creeping up her cheeks.

He stands up as if to go and help her, his heart squeezing in sympathy, but she stands up to go back to the kitchen. Before she does so her eyes lock with his warily.

 

When he leaves the restaurant hand in hand with Monica, he doesn’t see Kenna watch him leave, coffee mug in her hand.

 

Bash is confused. He had thought Monica was amazing, thought they had a good time. But the next day Francis is angrily pacing around yelling at him for ruining his chances with a girl he actually liked. Apparently Monica had not shared his opinion on their date.

“She said you kept staring at some other girl.” Francis fumed. “I thought you knew better than that. And why wouldn’t you even when you had a girl like that sat across from you? Are you oblivious or just stupid?”

Bash frowns. “I have no idea why she would say that.” He cries, throwing his hands up against his brother’s tirade.

“Well she probably meant that waitress your obsessed with.” Mary chips in with a casual voice, coming in from the kitchen having heard everything. 

She sits down next to Bash, not seeing the lost look of disbelief on his face.

Mary looks up and glances from Francis to Bash again. “Oh come on. Really?” she raises her eyebrows.

When she sees their blank expressions she rolls her eyes. “Bash every time you come back from that place you talk more about that waitress than your dates.”

Bash scoffs nervously. “I do not.” His gaze shifts between his friends. “Do I?”

Mary squares her shoulders and looks at him pointedly. “I don’t even know the name of your date before Monica. But I do know your waitress is named Kenna. And I know she has brown hair and long legs and that she likes pop music and mystery books. I even know she’s a cat person and prefers coffee over tea.” Mary laughs a little in disbelief. “Hell, you described her so well that I might as well date her instead of Francis – I probably know more about the poor girl.”

She lets out a breath when she finishes as if she’s been dying to say it for weeks.

Bash thinks about it properly for the first time. Yes, he had been excited to see Kenna when he went on his dates. They had talked a lot, freely and with ease, more so than he had with the girls he was actually there with. And he did know all those things about her because he’d listened to her with rapturous awe over coffee for weeks.

He thinks about how nice it had been with her. He thinks about the times he had waited for her to take the place across from him. He thinks about how she had learnt his coffee order and could tell when he was in the need to talk.

With sudden startling clarity he understands that through all these dates he’d been on, none of them were what he wanted. He wanted the unofficial dates with Kenna. He wanted coffee instead of wine, he wanted the empty restaurant and instead of the bustling one. He wanted Kenna instead of Monica. 

And once he admitted that to himself, he realised how far away she had felt from him on that last date. He remembers how she had dropped the plate at the exact moment Monica had touched his arm. He thinks about how when he had got home he had poured himself a cup of coffee, but it somehow didn’t taste the same as when she made it.

“I have to go.” He breathes in realization. 

He ignores Francis and Mary’s confused questions as he grabs his jacket, striding to the door.

 

Kenna is clearing the last of the tables outside. It’s cold and dark and she just wants to go home.

She had been reprimanding herself all day.

She kept telling herself it was stupid, that Bash was just another friendly customer. And she had always known he was on dates, so why had she allowed herself to get attached.   
Clearly he was seeing women. Clearly he was searching for someone. She had just dared to hope it could have been here. She feels guilty about it now.

And she had let it affect her work. She’d been distracted all day thinking about how she’d probably scared him off, throwing those plates everywhere like an idiot – however accidental it might have been.

She tries to shake the thoughts from her mind but they won’t budge, just like they wouldn’t all day. Or for the last few weeks really.

She had really felt a connection to him. Watching all those stupid dates, telling him stories, all of it. She was always so busy and all the guys she met were such creeps that to meet someone good, someone nice and good looking – and funny and clever and all the things she had seen in him across the table? It had been like a romantic movie or something. Or at least the thought it had been. He had probably just been grateful for the free coffee.

 

She sighs and turns to the next table and stops still with a frown.

A Starbucks cup sits on the table, her name clearly scrawled across it. She can see the steam rising from it. 

She looks around a little warily and sees no one. Stepping toward the drink, she’s about to pick it up when she hears a voice behind her.

“I didn’t know what coffee you preferred so I went with cappuccino.”

She whirls around, smiling at the familiar voice.

Bash is stood grinning at her and she smiles back with a shy nod.

“I’m actually a vanilla latte kind of girl.” She says.

Bash starts toward her. “It’s funny. All those times you brought me coffee and it’s probably the only thing we didn’t talk about.”

She shakes her head a little, looking into his eyes, not really believing this was happening. She had seen him with the beautiful dark haired girl the night before and had been convinced he wanted to be with her. Her heart flutters now, daring to believe she had been wrong.

Shyly she scuffs her shoe on the floor. “Well I suppose now you have no excuse to get it wrong next time.”

Bash nods graciously and smiles. “So your letting me get a next time? Even after I dated all those girls in front of you like a typical, oblivious boy?”

Kenna grins at him happily. 

“As long as we go somewhere that isn’t here. Your dates don’t tend to end that well at this place.”

Bash shrugs. “I think maybe that was to do with the waitress. You just can’t get good help these days.”

Kenna shoves him playfully in the shoulder and he chuckles.

“But seriously.” He says, looking at her intensely. “I would love to finally go on a date with you.”

Kenna reaches up on her tip toes and kisses his cheek.

“And I am going to expect more than coffee on that date.”

He laughs and his hand moves to her waist.

 

They kiss in the street, in the glow of the street lights, her arms round his shoulders and a smile on their lips.

This is better than all those dates put together.


End file.
